Foothills Seeing Double IPA

Brewed by Foothills Brewing
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA

Draught at the brewpub. Hazy light brown color with tan head that laced the glass. Cotton candy, flowery hop nose and flavor. Slightly sweet with bitter finish. Very good beer.

Sampled at RBSG 2006- Grand Tasting. Interesting beer in that it pours Clemson orange in color. Aroma is quite pleasant with a strong hop oil content. Taste is a blend of sweet and tartness. Unfortunately, the sweetness continues to dominate and leaves the beer a bit out of whack. Really quite good otherwise.

In short: Plenty of caramelized malts, nice resinous fruity hops but unfortunately alcohol too apparent. Very good nonetheless.
How: From a growler, post-Dark-Lord-Day 2008 party. Unknown generous soul.
The look: Dark orange body topped by a small off-white head
In long: Nose is fruity hops with a strong citrus/apricots aroma. A well malted body, lots of caramelized malts in this one. Hops profile is resinous, somewhat citrusy, some coniferous tree juice. I suspect a lot of Centennial hops in there and maybe some Cascade because its hop profile is somewhat reminiscent of my beloved Corne Du Diable. The beer falls apart in the finish with too much alcohol and sweetness. Alcohol that is apparent all the way through comes to bite you in the end. A good IIPA that could have been great. Definitely requires resample as I was pretty inebriated when I had it and I was already seeing double, I though I was drinking a Quadruple IPA.

Growler. Thanks, Riverside! Crystal clear medium amber. Thin gray rim with webby lace. Pine and biscuit nose. Nice creamy body on the high side of medium. Mild carb. Biscuity, piney. Nice. Very, very understated for a DIPA, except for the sweetness, which is overstated. This may have been better right from the faucet, but, overall, it’s a big sweet barleywine-ish ale with a somewhat confused hop bill.

Growler courtesy of Degarth. Thanks for bringing this back from your trip. Pours hazy yet clearing orange-ish copper with tan head and lasting cobweb lacing. The aroma is light with sweet grapefruit hops, sweet orange juice and a hint of malt sweetness. The taste is a bit timid for an IIPA with some grapefruit and orange hop flavor (most likely due to a load of late addition hops) and mild citrus hop bitterness. Pretty nice. With further investigation it seems the late addition hopping was quite prolific and poneying up the dominant flavor component. I also get a background of sweet malts. It ends with bitter hops growing to near tepid levels compared to the sweeter citrus hop flavor. Great mouth feel on this beer.

Growler from brentk57. Some nice citrus and floral hops on the nose. Some pale and caramel malts too. Amber pour with a lasting head and thick sticky lace. Toasty sweet malts with juicy citrus and earthy bitterness. A little sweeter than hoppy, but a nice bitter finish. A little alcohol heat. Good. I can see this being pretty killer on tap.

Cloudy orange brown, with a decent sized beige head. Big citrus and black pepper aroma. Very smooth, with a nice piney flavor up front and a viscous, malty finish. Draft at Barley’s, Asheville.

Sampled at RBSG06. Clear caramel body with a thin white head. Light floral hops aroma. Floral and citrus hops flavor with sweet caramel in the end.